Programs To Share $63 Million Through 'G.I. Bill for Service'

WASHINGTON--School-based service programs and other
community-service projects nationwide will share $63.1 million in the
first round of grants awarded by the federal Commission on National and
Community Service.

The projects--154 in all--will receive between $7,000 and $3.5
million each in mostly one-year grants, officials of the 21-member
bipartisan commission said in announcing the awards last week.

The grants are being made under the National and Community Service
Act of 1990, which authorized the commission to provide money,
training, and technical assistance to states and communities to develop
and expand service opportunities.

The funding will be divided among a mix of new programs and existing
ones undertaking expansion or change, officials said.

The programs fall into four categories: service-learning efforts in
public schools, community-service endeavors in colleges and
universities, youth-corps groups that offer community service and job
training, and national-service demonstration models for youths age 17
and older.

"This is a big day as far as I'm concerned for the concept of
national service,'' Senator Sam Nunn, Democrat of Georgia, told a press
conference here.

"I call this the G.I. Bill for community service,'' he added.

Mr. Nunn, an early proponent of the concept of national service for
young Americans, said he hoped the commission's grants would "awaken a
new spirit of civic obligation among the people of our country.'' He
said he would like the program to mobilize young people to help meet
the country's critical needs and to promote upward mobility by giving
its participants a better chance for education and skills training.

"The overall goal of the commission,'' Catherine Milton, its
executive director, said at the press conference, "is to make available
meaningful community-service opportunities to everyone regardless of
their income, race, or background.''

"We want to weave community service into the fabric of American life
by involving thousands of institutions, both public and private, in
collaborative efforts,'' she said.

Evaluation, Replication

The commission accepted about 30 percent of the grant applications
it received, turning away nearly 350 of more than 500 proposals.

Successful applications, Ms. Milton said in an interview, met four
criteria: high quality, including a proven track record for the
program; replicability; innovation; and potential for continuing
without federal funding.

"The extent to which these programs can be imitated by others will
become the best measure of their success,'' Gregg Petersmeyer, the
director of the White House Office of National Service, told the press
conference.

While most of the grants are for one year, some of the proposals in
the category of national-service demonstration models are two-year
grants, Ms. Milton noted.

The short duration of most of the grants will allow the commission
to see how well the projects proceed and whether other, different
proposals might be funded instead in the second year, she said.

All of the federal grants require some matching effort, said Shirley
Sachi Sagawa, a vice chairman of the commission and a former Senate
staff aide who worked on the authorizing act.

School-based programs must match 10 percent of their grant amounts
(20 percent and 30 percent in the second and third years, if the awards
are extended), Ms. Sagawa said. The conservation and youth-service
corps must match 25 percent of their grants, she said, while colleges
must raise money equivalent to half of the grants they receive.

The states hosting national-service demonstration models must only
split evenly with the commission the grant money for the participant's
post-service benefit--a total of $2,000 per year of service for
part-time workers and $5,000 a year for those who served full time,
according to Terry Russell, the general counsel to the commission.

Such benefits will likely take the form of a tuition scholarship for
participants, he said.

The commission is also putting heavy emphasis for all its grant
recipients on thorough program evaluation, Ms. Milton said.

"We want to be able to demonstrate what works,'' she said, "because
if we're going to build a national movement, we've got to have proof
that it does work so we can sell these ideas to every local community,
to every foundation, to every corporation.''

Eight 'Leader States'

In the school-based grant category, called Serve-America, 47 states,
the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico will divide $16.3 million for
service-learning projects for children from kindergarten through high
school.

In most cases, state education agencies will determine which local
schools and communities will receive subgrants.

For example, in New York City, high-school students will work with
junior-high students to train them in racial understanding, including
prejudice prevention and conflict resolution, Ms. Milton said.

And public-school students in Washington who have been the
recipients of volunteer services such as tutoring, she said, will be
asked to themselves become tutors.

Eight of the states receiving Serve-America grants are designated
"leader states,'' recognized for proposals that "hold especially
significant promise'' for the development of school-based community
service.

The leader states are Colorado, the District of Columbia, Maryland,
Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont, and West
Virginia.

Those states will share an additional $1.2 million to speed the
expansion of their proposals.

Ms. Milton said representatives from the programs in those states
will work closely with the commission as "field marshals'' to develop
model curricula and to train teachers elsewhere.

"The theory being those running programs are in the best position''
to explain to others what works, Ms. Milton said.

Out-of-School Youths

Projects in the category of conservation and youth-service
corps--designed for out-of-school youths--will share $21.5 million.

Such corps in 25 states, 5 operated by American Indian tribes, bring
together teenagers and young adults from diverse backgrounds to work on
service projects in such areas as education, the environment, and
public safety.

In exchange for their service, the corps members receive living
allowances and earn scholarships.

The program will offer a service-learning curriculum, setting it
apart from those that focus solely on job training, officials said.

In Los Angeles, a $1-million commission grant will enable the Los
Angeles Youth Corps to open satellite centers in areas affected by the
recent rioting and to recruit new members from the various minority
group communities hardhit by the violence.

The new recruits will then lead efforts to rebuild burned-out
buildings and plant community gardens in vacant lots.

National Models

Another one-third of the commission's grant money--$20.1
million--will go to developing seven demonstration models, six of them
new, for a national-service program geared to young people 17 and
older.

The existing model is the Boston-based City Year program, a
privately funded urban youth corps, which will expand four-fold with
its grant of $3.5 million a year for two years--the largest single
grant awarded by the commission.

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